Top 10 UK Anime Sellers Revealed: April 2013

Well at least Origins: Spirits of the Past didn't make the list this time. That's gotta be a positive.

I have such fond memories of my Saturday (and occasionally weekday evening after work) trips to Tottenham Ct. Road to buy anime and manga at nearby Forbidden Planet and Virgin Megastore.
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Yeah so do I, I was only a kid back then though, but there was something special about those days. Though in nearly every way the situation is actually vastly better nowadays than it was back then, what with more shows coming out, often straight to box set, streaming, internet ect ect. But back then it was a special kind of feeling, not having the internet, blind buying and not knowing what the hell it will be like, not even knowing what's coming out; just going down to the shop and seeing if there's anything exciting on the shelf. I remember paying like £15 for vol 11 of Evangelion on VHS when I hadn't even seen any of the prior ones :lol: I still enjoyed it and couldn't complain :lol:

As others have mentioned, nowadays the ever present temptation of the monolithic Crunchroll does provide a real challenge to purchasing things in the physical. Whenever I feel the urge to watch anime, I know there are tons of DVD's out now that I really want, but then I consider the reams of stuff I can also watch on Crunchy, and I suddenly get pretty apathetic about actually buying dvd's. It doesn't help that right now that I'm overly busy and low on disposable income, as if neither of those things were the case I would be buying more as I really do want to support our humble little market. But Crunchyroll is a saucy succubus for sure.
 
You've also got to remember that those figures are not the final sales. People will keep buying this stuff over the coming months. The last thing I bought the month it came out was Madoka. But I'm still buying anime, and there are a few things that came out in April that I intend to get, probably in a couple of months' time.
 
Joshawott said:
Andrew, I was wondering, how much do you think the availability of legal streaming (such as Crunchyroll) has affected the market in terms of sales by essentially cutting out "blind buying" for a lot of titles? On one hand, I can see the benefit of increased sales from people who might not have bought the show had they not tried watching it first, but there's also the people who would watch a show they might have been interested in buying, but choose not to buy based on opinions from watching it streamed. For a personal example, I wouldn't be waiting impatiently to throw money at whoever can license Bunny Drop or Wandering Son had I not seen them streamed legally (hinthint),
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Seconding the need for both Bunny Drop and Wandering Son to get a pukka release here. Have funds, will buy. Yes, I have seen both, but these are series I want to own.

I think streaming has provided a 'try before you buy' facility, certainly my anime purchases have increased as a result of actually seeing a series before release. I like/prefer the physical product and the 'ownership' that comes with it.

I think most distributors have an uphill struggle to get a series to market and make a profit, not least because of the wide diversity of physical options (I'd be very happy with subs-only on DVD, but appreciate that YMMV). It'd be interesting to see the difference in sales between a vanilla sub-only DVD release and the same series on all-singing, all-dancing, loadedwithextras, dubbed BR, assuming a distributor is willing to risk such (unless it's already happened??)

I also wonder if the upcoming London Comic Con (aka MCM Expo) has dented sales, as people hold off to buy at the event. Do previous April figures show a comparable dip??

And lastly, how much influence does advertising make - outside the specialist mags and forums/websites, you rarely see anime mentioned - even the occasional review in the mainstream press might raise the profile??
 
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